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Why February should inspire banqueting furniture use

If Chinese New Year seems like a good excuse for a celebration in February, it's not the only event for which banqueting furniture might be put to good use.

Shrove Tuesday often falls in February; although it can also occur in March, this will not happen again until 2019, and in the years to come it lands on February 9th 2016, February 28th 2017 and February 13th 2018.

Valentine's Day is perhaps more suited to smaller tables than to banquet-style dining, although some couples choose to get married on February 14th for an extra-romantic addition to their big day, and of course banqueting furniture is a common feature in most wedding receptions.

But aside from all of the most commonly known events that fall into the shortest month of the year, what many people might not realise is that the name of February itself derives from the Roman festival of purification Februa.

The festival fell on the 13th-15th of the Roman month, making Valentine's Day the closest fixed 'festival' of modern times, but the purification aspects of Februa - which was essentially a celebration of spring cleaning and ritualistic washing - probably align better with Shrove Tuesday and the abstention that comes with Lent.

For modern-day party organisers, it's a festival well worth reviving, as the purification part of it taps into many people's New Year's Resolutions and general aspirations to live more cleanly and healthily.

But best of all, it's a great excuse for a celebration in the last full month of winter, when the evenings are just starting to remain light for longer and the slightly warmer weather of spring is on its way.

As noted above, the changing date of Shrove Tuesday in the next few years means any future Februa festival will fall after or before the traditional over-indulgence of 'pancake day'.

In either case, it's a good reason for a banquet - either as a last big indulgence before Lent begins, for those who are giving up on life's luxuries until Easter, or as an event that falls within Lent itself and gives those who are abstaining the chance to enjoy themselves without feeling too guilty.